CORRESPONDENCE. 137 



of man, will be the only part of his nature which will not have been 

 investigated with the same enlarged and scientific views as his 

 other powers, physical and intellectual. 



We must, therefore, begin our researches by collecting all the 

 facts relating to human language ; or, in other words, by collecting 

 authentic specimens of words, and of the grammatical structure of 

 every dialect within our reach. The more complete we can make 

 our collection, the more correct and satisfactory will be the results 

 deduced from them. Our progress in philological science will 

 then be as successful as in other departments of knowledge. For 

 instance, in geology, when a few specimens of antediluvian bones, 

 and impressions of vegetable and other productions, were first dis- 

 covered, they were laid up in museums as simple curiosities, and 

 without the least anticipation of anything like important scientific 

 results; and yet, by the successive collections made of those 

 objects, we now find the new science of geology has arisen, which 

 enables us to form more just conceptions of the structure and phe- 

 nomena of the globe, than had ever before been imagined by the 

 most subtle and profound philosophers of ancient or modern times. 



The same thing will take place in philological science, as soon 

 as we obtain an extensive collection of facts, or, in other words, of 

 authentic specimens of language; and, in due time, some genius 

 will appear, who, like Cuvier in geology, will compare and classify 

 all the specimens of language, and exhibit results that will be no 

 less interesting and astonishing than those obtained in other 

 sciences. 



It is, I am aware, a very common question : What will be the 

 utility of collecting facts in relation to language? a question which 

 may be shortly answered, by asking, in return, of what utility is it 

 to investigate any other faculty or peculiarity of the human race ? 

 Why have so much time and labour been bestowed for ages on 

 the study of the body and mind of man ? If it is of any import- 

 ance to study the human mind, the repository of our ideas upon all 



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